http://www.energyefficiencynews.com/articles/i/5317/?cid=3

The UK government announced the latest steps in its flagship home efficiency scheme, including a £7 million loan for the Green Deal Finance Company. 

The loan from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) will ensure that providers are ready to offer low-cost finance to householders for energy efficiency improvements in early 2013. Under the scheme, consumers can repay the upfront costs of any work through a low-cost loan recouped through savings on energy bills.

The Green Deal Finance Company will act to aggregate loans under the scheme so that they can access capital and bond markets to reduce the level of interest to 6-8%.

The Green Deal scheme is also being considered as an initial candidate for the government's infrastructure guarantees, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander announced.

Infrastructure guarantees are designed to provide backing for major infrastructure projects, potentially supporting up to £40 billion of investment.

Meanwhile, the register for providers, installers and assessors opened on Wednesday. All authorised contractors, which comply with government standards, will be able to display the Green Deal Quality Mark to give customers confidence.

"The opening of the Green Deal register will enable businesses to start becoming Green Deal authorised and the Green Deal Quality Mark will show they have met our standards. Crucially, this will protect consumers, who will know that anyone displaying the Quality Mark has been through the required process to become authorized," commented Energy and Climate Change Minister Greg Barker.